ERIC’S TECH TALK by Eric W. Austin I opened the door and stepped hesitantly into the dimly lit room. Curtains covered all the windows. The only light came from a half-dozen computer screens glowing menacingly in the darkness. A scary-looking German Shepherd slumped in one corner. She growled low in her throat as I came […]
by Eric W Austin We’ve published a lot of stories over the past year, but which ones stood out from the crowd? More than 20,000 people visited townline.org in 2017, with pages on the site viewed more than 70,000 times. One of the advantages of a website over a traditional newspaper is the ability to […]
Eric’s Tech Talk by Eric W. Austin Writer and Technical Consultant In August of 1981, an upstart cable TV station began broadcasting these slick new videos set to music. They called it “music television.” The first music video to air on the new channel was the Buggles’ song “Video Killed the Radio Star.” It was […]
ERIC’S TECH TALK by Eric Austin Computer Technical Advisor Do you like your cable TV service? I hope so, because your internet service is about to get a whole lot more like it. On Thursday last week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), headed up by Trump appointee and former Verizon employee Ajit Pai, voted 3-2, […]
by Eric W. Austin With words like ‘epidemic,’ ‘crisis,’ and ‘national emergency,’ the opioid problem has been in the news a lot lately. But how is this important issue impacting our local communities here in Central Maine? That’s the question I set out to answer. I started by contacting an old friend of mine. Jared […]
ERIC’S TECH TALK by Eric W. Austin We’re all familiar with it. Try to log into your favorite website, and you’re likely to be presented with a question: Are you human or a robot? Then you might be asked to translate a bit of garbled text or pick from a set of presented images. What’s […]
ERIC’S TECH TALK by Eric Austin Computer Technical Advisor The pace of technological advancement has a speed limit and we’re about to slam right into it. The first electronic, programmable, digital computer was designed in 1944 by British telephone engineer Tommy Flowers, while working in London at the Post Office Research Station. Named the Colossus, […]
ERIC’S TECH TALK by Eric W. Austin Computer Technical Advisor The year is 1998. As the century teeters on the edge of a new millennium, no one can stop talking about Monica Lewinsky’s dress. September 11, 2001, is still a long ways off, and the buzz in the tech bubble is all about the Y2K […]
ERIC’S TECH TALK by Eric Austin Technical Consultant Commerce began simply enough. When roving bands of hardly-human migratory hunters met in the Neolithic wilderness, it was only natural that they compare resources and exchange goods. The first trades were simple barters: two beaver skins and a mammoth tusk for a dozen arrowheads and a couple […]
ERIC’S TECH TALK by Eric Austin Computer Technical Advisor In an automobile accident – in the moments before your car impacts an obstacle, in the seconds before glass shatters and steel crumples — we usually don’t have time to think, and are often haunted by self-recriminations in the days and weeks afterward. Why didn’t I […]